Brooklyn's Lost Saltwater Oasis

As a summer heat wave kicks off the last few days of Pride Month, our Photo of the Week takes us to an elegant indoor pool at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn Heights.

The Hotel St. George was once the city's largest hotel and a glamorous spot to see and be seen. It was also a known cruising and gathering space for gay men, some of whom resided at the hotel. As such, it has been featured in two of our stories on Urban Archive: Stay Cool at Brooklyn Pools and Taking Pride in Brooklyn LGBTQ+ History. Past residents and frequent visitors included writers Truman Capote, Hart Crane, and Tennessee Williams. The hotel was known for its luxe spaces, including this beautiful Art Deco pool. The pool was filled with salt water and was quite famous, especially during the hotel's heyday from the 1930s to the 1950s. This architectural rendering shows the pool's soaring columns and beautiful geometric tile work. It was printed in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle when the pool opened in 1930. The newspaper's breathless coverage noted that the pool was the largest in the city and had cost $1.5 million to "build, equip, and decorate."

Though the hotel closed down in 1995, rumor has it the pool is still intact underneath the Eastern Athletic Club that occupies the space today, where the "brilliant jade tiles" the Eagle once described on the pool columns are still visible in the main room. The rest of the building is occupied by apartments and student residences. Today's Brooklynites probably know it best as the location of the Clark Street subway station. Next time you find yourself at that station on a hot summer's day, maybe the thought of the cool, sparkling pool that was once nearby can provide a little refreshment.

Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We look forward to inviting you to CBH in the future to research in our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at [email protected].